Race Calendar 2011

In other news, I'm working on my race calendar, which currently looks like this:

Jan. 7-8: Florida Keys Ragnar (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/floridakeys)
March 12: Four Courts Four (http://pacersevents.com/fourcourtsfour/index.html)
April 3: Cherry Blossom 10 (http://www.cherryblossom.org/)
May 1: The Colorado Half Marathon (http://www.ftcollinsmarathon.com/HalfMarathon.html)
June 4: Virginia Wine Country Half Marathon (http://www.run4virginiawine.com/)
Oct. 21-22: Las Vegas Ragnar (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/lasvegas) (With Jill! ZOMG!)

Which means I should probably find races for:
- February
- July
- August
- September

I'm planning on doing a turkey trot wherever my parents are for November, and maybe this year I'll suck it up and do the 10k Jingle All the Way again. So cold.  So jingly....

What are you registering for?

A Post about Many Things

So you know what happens when you wait to register for races?

They fill up.

As a result, the two half marathons that I'd planned to run this year have filled up (Virginia Wine Country and the Colorado Half).

Right now, I'm on the wait list for Virginia Wine and am scrambling for a replacement for the Colorado.  The trick in this equation is that Will leaves in May to go home for a bit, then comes back to Colorado.  I was thinking of the Horsetooth Half (mid-April), but Mom and my cousin (who lives out there) have suggested maybe a fall race...better weather!  Roze says that the Crosswinds race is less punishing (course profile says flat and fast) and, again, better weather.

So, to avoid this issue in the future, here's my calendar:

Jan: Ragnar Miami (just got back last night!)
Feb: Love the Run You're With (http://www.pacersevents.com/lovetherun/index.html)
March: B and A Half, Four Courts Four
April: Cherry Blossom 10, Nashville Rock and Roll Half
May: Marine Corps Half (maybe) or maybe New England Ragnar

Ragnar.

Ragnar was incredible.  I had a great time down in the Keys--we got to DC on Wednesday night, got Brannon, and headed to the house where we passed out after a glass of wine and some nachos.  Thursday we celebrated Chadd's birthday with breakfast at Briar Patch in Winter Park, then got ready to head down to Miami.

Chadd and I picked up K-lo in Boca Raton, then met up with everyone in Miami.  Friday morning, we decorated the vans (which looked so awesome...they had grass skirts with hibiscus flowers around them and margarita lights around the front windshield) then headed to the start line.

The only thing I'd change about this Ragnar experience would be our start time.  We got a 1pm start time and wound up getting stuck with fast teams, so we were often alone at exchange points and missing the real "Ragnar experience."  However, Ragnar was totally awesome and let us run simultaneously--Van 1 was still running their third leg while van 2 began theirs as well.  Instead of finishing after the finish line would have been closed (we'd have gotten in around 8:30), we wound up finishing around quarter of 5.

Margaritas, beer, pina coladas, all out on the Southernmost Point beach (I managed to walk into the water to about my knees in lieu of an ice bath).  The after party was INCREDIBLE.  Live music, great vendors, tons of people...it was really paradise.  The race itself was a blast, I had great people in my van and we spent a good deal of time basically rushing through the Keys (our legs were a lot shorter this time, it seemed, and traffic destroyed our ability to easily get around).  There was nothing like running over the water on the fishing bridges, or talking with the wonderful people in Homestead who thought we were crazy.  Van 1 saw a Key Deer while we saw Iguanas....there were a few legs that required runners to sign a waiver about "potentially aggressive wildlife" spawning the joke in the RagMag (ragnar magazine) with a giant fake gator saying "Imma Eat Choo"....

The whole experience was just as wonderful, but totally different than the first.  That's the beauty of Ragnar--it might be the same structure, 36 hour 200 mile relay race, but it's always new.

I'm already planning the next Ragnar, so if you want in, let me know.

On the Ragnar note...the Hood to Coast documentary is being shown for one night only in theaters tomorrow night.  If you live in the Alexandria area (Eisenhower, Hoffman Center), come see me other Brigade members, and Pacers at the theater for a reg code with a good deal and talk to me about Ragnar in person (please allow for at least 30 minutes as I can talk your ear off about how much I love it).

In final news, I'm filling out my workout schedule, which will look vaguely like this:

Monday: Rest OR Pacers evening Fun Run (Alexandria)
Tuesday: AM workout (weights) AND Teaching evening cycle (7pm Nat. Cap YMCA - starting next week)
Wednesday: AM workout  And/Or Fleet Feet Women's Running Group (6:30PM AdMo)
Thursday: AM weights workout And/Or Pacers Running Group (Logan Circle)
Friday: AM cycle or AM Cardio and Weights
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Teach 20-20-20 (10am Nat. Cap YMCA)

This fulfills my requirements for two running clubs, brings me back to teaching 2 classes a week, and gives me two rest days.  I prefer doubling up on days to workout simply because it gives me flexibility if I don't want to hit a night workout.

Ideally, I'll be able to cycle through the three running clubs--do Monday night when I can't make a Wednesday or Thursday.  If there are 4 weeks in a month (roughly), I'd ideally like to make it to a running group 6 times.  That gives me two weeks where I can only make it once or one week where I can't at all.

In final news, (too lazy to go back and correct previously written stuff on this page), I will be captaining a team for Ragnar New England, May 20-21.  Prepare.  Now...to find a good team name....

Race Calendar

I have a really bad habit of signing up for major races then overbooking myself. I always enjoy the races, always feel accomplished, but sometimes when I'm tired, I look at my calendar and go....fuuuuuuuu

Today happens to be one of those days!

Current race plans:
March 10 - Four Courts Four Miler (thankfully my coach only has me running 4 easy before this race instead of the 12 I'd tried to map out so I could hit my 16)
March 17 - Rock and Roll Half Marathon

April - TBD (anyone have any good recs for fun April races? Nothing too crazy, I'm winding down marathon training this month)

May 6 - Flying Pig Marathon
May 11-12 - Ragnar Cape Cod (formerly, NE)
May 27 - Boston Memorial Half (which I will get to run with my bff Katie!)

June 8-9 - Ragnar Chicago
June 15-16 - Ragnar Wasatch Back (tentative)

July - Nothing on the books - any suggestions?

August 5 - Ironman 70.3 National Harbor
August 17-18 - Ragnar Great River

September 21-22: Ragnar DC
September 28-29: Ragnar Adirondacks (formerly, NY)

As far as major races go, that's:
Half Marathons: 2
Marathons: 1
Ragnar: 6
Half Ironman: 1

There's a duathlon on July 15th that's like...26 miles of biking and I think 6 miles of running. Could be fun.

I'm supposed to send this list to my coach and have her say yes/no...I'm betting she's going to keep me in line :)

A Race By Any Other Name

On May 4^th, I was halfway to Cincinnati when my phone buzzed. We were stoped at a gas station that proclaimed a very bastardized acclamation of the Gospel (sorry to anyone but rich, white landowners, heaven, apparently, just ain’t for you!). I was basically in nowheresville.

I checked my email, expecting spam or work and instead saw this:

From: Ironman 70.3 National Harbor
Subject: Important Event News

You tell me what you think when you see that. I had two thoughts: 1) I probably need to request a start time or something. 2) The race is cancelled.

#2 was the correct gut feeling. This was the content of the email:

Dear Ironman 70.3 National Harbor Athlete, 

The inaugural Ironman 70.3 National Harbor Triathlon has been cancelled. Athletes registered for the event will receive a full refund of their entry and processing fees.Refunds will be issued within 30 days and will be credited to the card used for registration through the Active Network. 

Ironman is committed to helping participants reach their goal of racing an Ironman 70.3 in 2012 and will further offer each athlete impacted by the cancellation a $50 discount to one of the events listed below: 

[Blah blah blah list of races and how to re-register] 

Thank you for your understanding and patience through this process. We wish you the best of luck with your training and racing.

I’ll leave the commentary to other bloggers who have better deconstructed this quick cancellation, but I can tell you what I thought: nothing.

I was so caught up in the travel to Cincinnati that I literally had 0 concern for this. I was really lucky. I got on the phone with my coach immediately who, of course, already knew about the cancellation. She encouraged me to not worry about it, that she already had some options lined up for me, and that we’d talk about those after Flying Pig – but not now. In case you were ever considering getting a coach, this is one of those top 5 reasons to have one.

I will admit that I did spend a good portion of the drive wondering why. Having worked in PR before, this hasty cancellation without explanation was driving me mad. I knew something else was behind it. Coach mentioned the National Harbor’s bad rap for hosting races (anyone remember the Hot Chocolate 15k?) 

I also remembered the problems that DC Rainmaker had when he previewed the course  and that the Potomac has been worse and worse for race conditions (to the point where swims are frequently cancelled). 

When Coach said that this cancellation was a good thing, I believed her. But my PR mind was still chugging. You only send out bad news at 4pm on a Friday. Twitter rumors were swirling, lots of finger pointing was going on, but in the end, this was the second email we received, almost two weeks later:

Dear Athlete,
The Ironman 70.3National Harbor Triathlon was cancelled because not enough athletes were registered for the event. 

Initially we kept quiet because Ironman asked us to stay silent, not post anything on social media and not send out any press releases so that the damage to Ironman’s brand would be minimized. We were fools to agree and that was a big mistake on our part. 

We should have communicated immediately and told you the reason from the start. We have nothing to hide from the truth and were just initially intimidated by Ironman's request. 

We apologize.

I believe almost 90% of this. There’s something else, but it’s neither here nor there.

I got an email from Coach the morning after my marathon and reviewed my options:

• Ironman 70.3 Timberman, New Hampshire
• Patriot’s Half in Williamsburg, VA
• Ironman 70.3 Austin

I also looked at the list and, at the urging of my twitter friends, added two more to the maybe pile:

• Ironman 70.3 Augusta
• Beach to Battleship, North Carolina

I nixed Timberman pretty quickly. I don’t know New Hampshire and it’s a long drive (flight?) and it just seemed like it may as well be in a foreign country when you applied a half ironman to it. Austin is a bit late in the season, and since I’m pretty sure I want to do Giant Acorn (how can you not with a name like that?), it didn’t work. Especially not if I sign up for the Richmond Marathon.

While I was batting around ideas for a new race with my friends in Cincinnati, I floated Augusta. A friend said that the swim course was the easiest for an Ironman – it’s in a river, with current. This was sorely tempting to me, but pride beat me when the same friend said, “I hear that a doritos bag made the swim in 45 minutes.” Pass.

Between B2B and Patriot’s I have two great options for a new 70.3. The only thing that stuck with me was that neither is Ironman branded. In fact, Patriot’s is actually 2 miles longer (on the bike) than an IM 70.3.

I sat down and tried to deconstruct this one night on my bike trainer. If you’ve been on a trainer at all, you’ll know that you do a lot of thinking on that bastard piece of shit (read the link, trust me, you’ll die laughing. Scroll down for description)  

I realized after an hour of going no where (literally), that a brand name doesn’t make the race. The effort and time and training I put into it makes it a race. I started out with this thought process:

My heart says I should choose Patriots. Coach will be there, Williamsburg is close, it’s cheaper than an IM race, and some of my teammates are going. I should do Patriots.

But it’s not an IM branded race. Do I care? I feel like I should care. You were in marketing. You realize that this is basically just good marketing. It’s 2 miles longer than an IM. That makes it more badass. They should make magnets specifically for this one. 72.3. “Well, yes, I’ve done a half IM, but it was 2 miles longer.” This isn’t my only 70.3. This is a good first one. Admit it, you had nightmares about T1 from National Harbor.

But what about Augusta? That’s close to my folks. But then you’ll have done the easiest of the half IMs. Pansy. No, not pansy. Half IM. I hate my bike trainer. This thing is a piece of crap. Why am I on this bike? I could give up training right here, right now. I could just quit while I’m ahead with a sub 4 marathon. That’s pretty beast.

After a lot [more] of inner monologue, which I will spare you, I came to the conclusion that a brand doesn’t make a race any more or less awesome. Ironman or not, I’m doing a 7[2].3 and what will make that race badass is that I will have trained and poured myself into that accomplishment.

How about you? Does race branding matter to you? If so, why?